Three year old math

Math5Littles | Early Math Activities for Two- and Three-Year-Olds

• December 30, 2019

We’ve designed these games to focus on the six key skill areas of early math.

When young children learn early math skills, it isn’t about equations and flashcards—it’s all about having fun while helping your little one’s brain grow. Take some time to browse the play activities below and try some with your 2-to-3 year-old. We’ve designed these games to focus on the six key skill areas of early math:

• Counting
• Computation
• Shapes
• Spatial awareness
• Measurement
• Patterns

Start with the first set of activities and then move on to the others when your child is ready. As you play, remember that children master skills at different speeds—for example, counting errors are common in the early years. Feel free to adjust the challenge level to suit your child. Remember the goal is having fun, so avoid making a big deal about mistakes. Just explain the correct answer and move on with the activity.

Activity Levels:

• Starting Out
• Next Up
• Ready to Soar

If you are looking for the Spanish translations of the activities, click here.

If you are a professional and would like to use these activities with the families in your program, check out the User’s Guide to assist with your planning and implementation.

Math5Littles is a collaboration between American Institutes of Research and ZERO TO THREE.

Starting Out

• One Cracker, Two Crackers
• Counting Fun
• Ones and Twos
• Basket Ball
• Teddy Bear Climbs a Chair
• Over Under Obstacle Course
• Counting Rhymes
• Only One
• Now, Listen to Me Count
• Step on the Shape
• Shape Sorting
• Shape I-Spy

Next Up

• Comparing Apples and Oranges
• Shape Hunt
• Red, Blue, Red, Blue
• Counting As You Go
• Counting What You Eat
• How Many on the Plate?
• One Dot, Two Dots
• Can You Match This?
• Patterns with Forks and Spoons
• Tracing Shapes
• Find the Shapes
• Match the Shapes to Their Shadows

Ready to Soar

• Shoe Shoe Train
• And the Beat Goes On
• Circle, Circle, Square
• One More for the Birds
• How Many Fingers?
• Macaroni Math
• Big Spoon, Little Spoon
• Warm Soup, Cold Soup
• Puppy Tails
• Apple Tree Math
• What’s in the Bowl?
• Matching Sets of Rocks

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Math for 3-4 Year Olds: Activities, Worksheets and Games

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• Teaching Math for 3 and 4 Year Olds

Jessica Kaminski

7 minutes read

April 26, 2022

With a bit of practice, math can be relatively easy for preschoolers. After kids are  exposed to new math concepts, they should practice regularly. As studying math may seem a bit overwhelming at first glance, let’s cover a few basic suggestions on approaches to learning math for 3 year olds and math for 4 year olds.

Math for Three and Four Year Olds

Math is an important subject for kids in their preschool years. To help children master basic math skills and begin to prepare them for school, it is important to work with kids on math activities that are appropriate for their age.

As you work with your child, remember that learning should be fun, and your kid should not become upset or frustrated when working on math exercises.

Math Activities

Studying math is an essential activity necessary for a child’s development. In the first few years of life, toddlers begin to build their understanding of numbers and simple math concepts. The goal is to create fun activities that promote confidence and a love for learning. Studying math in early age also develops eye-hand coordination as well as fine motor control. Following are the activities you can try with your preschooler:

a) Color recognition

Color recognition is among the first math activities for 3 year olds. This skill lays the foundation for kids’ ability to count objects and group them by color.

To help your child learn colors, begin with simple projects like sorting objects. You can start with several different colored blocks, buttons, or other objects of the same size. Once you gather materials together, encourage your child to sort the items by color into separate piles.

Once kids master this activity for 3 year olds, move on to counting individual items using number recognition cards that you can make yourself or find online.

b) Shapes in the sky

Show your child how to make shapes in the air by making circles, triangles, and squares with their arms as they say the name of each shape out loud. Apply this exercise as part of the number activities for 3 year olds to help your child become familiar with some basic shapes that they will encounter in preschool.

c) Tape measure

Give your child a roll of tape and watch as they measure everything in sight. Measuring is one of math activities for 4 year olds. Probably, a kid can measure toys and body parts. Be sure to ask your kid what comes after “10 inches” so that they start recognizing numbers more than 10 too!

d) Piece of pie

Invite your child to cut a piece of paper or a cardboard box into fourths and then eighths, and keep on cutting until you have a pile of pieces of different sizes. Ask your child how many pieces they have and how many more they need to cut the whole thing into 12, for example.

Numbers and Counting

Use toys to teach numbers to a 4 year old. You can count toys while holding them in your hand, e.g., 1 toy, 2 toys, 3 toys, etc.

If a kid is old enough to write, make them write numbers on paper with a pencil or crayon. If they are too small, then get some wooden number blocks from the store or make them at home and teach kids how to arrange the items in order, e.g., 1, 2, 3, etc.

Counting games for 3 year olds are important tools since they help form the basis for studying math concepts. There are many ways you can teach your child how to count correctly:

• Counting with fingers: For this activity, you should sit on the floor with your child in front of you and ask to raise their hands and count one finger at a time; thus, a kid can count up to 10. That is one of the ways of how to teach numbers to a 4 year old.
• Counting with toys: It is a suitable approach to teach mathematics for 3 year olds by asking your child to gather all their toys and then count as many things as they can. Toys counting is among the most effective counting games for 3 year olds. You should give kids feedback after each try and encourage them to proceed studying.
• Counting by jumping: Perform this activity by asking your child to jump on the ground in rhythm with your voice while you count from 1 to 10 or more if they can do it successfully. After ten jumps, a kid can stop and repeat the activity as many times as possible. It is one of the practical math games for 3 year olds.

Math Worksheets

The ultimate goal of math worksheets is to teach children mathematics concepts, including counting, adding and subtracting numbers, and solving math problems. Remember, math worksheets are not just used for teaching math for three year olds; they are also a great resource for review and practice and can help students of all ages retain key mathematical skills.

Math worksheets for 3 year olds help kids practice simple math facts. Furthermore, they can teach children new concepts. For example, if a child is learning addition using a standard method, they may have an easier time learning a new concept such as multiplication by using the same approach.

Math Games

Math games for 4 year olds can be entertaining and effective ways to teach kids math facts, arithmetic operations, and even logic.

One of the popular math games for four year olds is dice games. In this game, your child should roll the dice and count how many dots they see on each side.

You can then ask a kid to add the dots on all sides together, which helps your child learn addition quickly. Dice games are suitable for children from four to seven years old.

Conclusion

Teaching the basics of math for 3 and 4 year olds is vital. Fundamental math skills they master at this age are a solid foundation for further successes in math. Early math education promotes the development of mathematical thinking and positively impacts social outcomes in the future.

Jessica Kaminski

Jessica is a a seasoned math tutor with over a decade of experience in the field. With a BSc and Master's degree in Mathematics, she enjoys nurturing math geniuses, regardless of their age, grade, and skills. Apart from tutoring, Jessica blogs at Brighterly. She also has experience in child psychology, homeschooling and curriculum consultation for schools and EdTech websites.

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How to teach mathematics to a three-year-old kid? | Home and family

Mathematics plays an important role in a child's development. After all, she teaches to reason, generalize, analyze. The study of mathematics should not be reduced to the development of counting and solving examples of addition and subtraction. This can lead to your child's learning becoming formal and boring. But mathematics is not only dry numbers and recalculation. These are also ideas about quantity, space and size. nine0003

Classes with a child of three or four years should be carried out mainly in the form of a game. Moreover, it is not necessary to wait for a certain age of the child. From the first months of life, introduce mathematical concepts into the life of the crumbs. For example, count out loud toys, fingers. Be sure to get cubes. This is one of the most accessible "math assistants". Here are some educational games with a mathematical bias. nine0003

"Sorting"

This game is suitable for the little ones. It develops fine motor skills, teaches the child to highlight the main features of objects, train counting skills, cultivates perseverance and attention.

Prepare small items in advance: buttons, paper clips, Kinder Surprise toys. Put them together in one box. Prepare several matchboxes (according to the number of types of items). Lay a large piece of paper on the floor. Seat the child. Explain to the child that you need to arrange the items from the big box into small matchboxes so that each of them contains only things of the same kind. nine0003

After the baby completes the task, check the correct distribution of objects. Count the number aloud. Write the corresponding number on each box.

"Short and long"

This game reinforces the concept of "long" and "short" in the child's memory, develops imagination and fine motor skills of the hands, gives the concept of the simplest geometric shapes. nine0003

Cut different lengths of colored cardboard. Divide all the strips into two piles: long ones in one, and short ones in another. Ask your child how the stripes differ. After the baby answers correctly, invite him to lay out the pictures using these strips. Play with your child! Tell him short stories as the game progresses.

For example, use stripes to draw the following story:

“Once upon a time there were two friends: a Hare and a Bear. The Hare had a small house, and the Bear had a big one. Near the Hare's house there was a small fence, and at the Bear's house there was a large fence. A short path led from the Hare's house, and a long path from the Bear's house. But when the Hare and the Bear went to visit each other, these paths connected into one - very long! nine0023